Read Purvi Shah's powerful article "The Value of Vigil(ance) in Ending Sexual Violence" up at Huffington Post

The Value of Vigil(ance) in Ending Sexual Violence

 

What do we here in the U.S. take away from the brutal gang-rape and death of Jyoti Singh Pandey? 

Across our world, miles away from the original site of violence in Delhi, India, a wave of protests and vigils have honored Jyoti and demanded an end to sexual violence. Leading the wave, thousands of protesters in Delhi have faced tear gas, water cannons and otherpolice force in order to say India needs stronger laws against sexual assault while fostering a society that does not condone gender violence -- so that it is no longer themost dangerous place to be born a girl child.

In the United States too, with our own sobering rate of sexual assaults faced by one in six women and one in 33 men, a number of vigils for Jyoti have marked local calls for community response to sexual violence.

At a recent vigil last Tuesday evening, where I contributed a poem, hundreds of community members gathered in Union Square, New York City to honor Jyoti and offer support to stop sexual violence around the world and here at home.

Then again, in an article speaking to the spread of U.S. vigils honoring Jyoti, commenter Douting Mind, asserts, "What a waste of time." Indeed, you can't bring a body back, erase suffering, wish away experience. Laws are slow to change. Society, sometimes even slower.

Thank you, Purvi, for writing this beautiful and necessary piece. 

Read the rest of her post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/purvi-shah/sexual-violence_b_2528787.html

Monica Ong is featured in a First Person Plural Interview

Monica Ong was trained as a visual artist but poetry has long been a part of her creative process.  She joins FPP on January 28 to share her work, and we asked her a few questions about her influences, the act of translation, and cultural silence.

Which artists do you feel closest to and which have had the greatest impact on your work?  I am deeply affected by many artists and writers. Shirin Neshat – the intersection of text, image, feminism, and cultural revolution in her work is so courageous. I love the audio walks by Janet Cardiff. Favorite artist-poets include Anne Carson and Susan Howe. As far as growing in my work, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the poets of Kundiman and Cave Canem, organizations that foster Asian-American and African-American Poetry respectively – the poets I’ve met are not only examples of great writers, but generous spirits who don’t hesitate to nourish and mentor others. It continues to astound and inspire me to this day. That’s my shout out to Sarah Gambito and Randall Horton, as well as many others who know who they are.

Read more from the interview here: http://www.firstpersonpluralharlem.com/2013/01/18/the-fpp-interview-monica-ong/

Congrats, dear Monica!

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Check out our exciting 10 Year Anniversary events at this year's AWP in Boston!

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Kundiman is an official Literary Sponsor of the 2013 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference

Anniversary Celebration

Thursday, March 7, 5:30 - 8:00 pm, Pucker Gallery, 171 Newbury Street Boston, MA
By Invitation Only

Panels

The New Workshop: Literary Community through Pedagogical Innovation 
Friday, March 8, 12:00 - 1:15 pm, Room 102, Hynes Convention Center
Sponsored by Kundiman. (Sarah Gambito, Regie Cabico, Paisley Rekdal, Myung Mi Kim) Three acclaimed Asian American poets read new work and discuss how literary community and innovation in pedagogy are mutually reinforcing. How does one write toward a realizing of a literary community? These three poets, all who have served as Kundiman faculty members, offer multiple strategies on how to disrupt traditional paradigms of workshop and invite questions of identity and social community into a writer’s practice and life.
Book-signing directly after at the Harvard Bookstore booth located in Hall A at Booth #513, 515. 

Intersecting Lineages: Poets of Color Cross-Community Collaboration.
Friday, March 8, 10:30 am - 11:45 am, Room 209, Level 2, Hynes Convention Center 
(Ching-In Chen, Sherwin Bitsui, Celeste Guzman Mendoza, Hayan Charara, Kevin Simmonds) Inspired by collaboration between organizations mentoring poets of color (Cave Canem, Kundiman and Canto Mundo), poets from indigenous, African American, Arab American, Asian American and Latina communities will discuss creative exchange and solidarity amongst writers of color and their communities on this panel. Poets will read work by ancestor poets considered outside of their self-identified communities and talk about how their work benefits from this productive hybrid fertilization.

Reading

Kundiman: 10-Year Celebration of Lovesongs, Verses, and Books
Saturday, March 9, 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m, Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D 
(Joseph O. Legaspi, Cathy Linh Che, Matthew Olzmann, Brynn Saito and Sharon Suzuki-Martinez)
Since its inception nearly a decade ago, Kundiman continues to foster and champion emerging Asian American voices, resulting in multiple book, chapbook, print and online publications by Kundiman fellows. In partnership with Alice James Books, Kundiman also sponsors The Kundiman Poetry Prize, which guarantees annually a book publication by an Asian American poet. Through caring openness and poetic rigor, Kundiman has built a vital, dynamic community that is transforming the literary landscape.

Bookfair

Kundiman will be at Booth #408 at the Bookfair. Stop by and see us! 

For the most up-to-date information, click on our link: http://www.kundiman.org/awp

Listen to Neil Aitken read his poem "Babbage Departing Turin by Coach, 1840"--published in RHINO Poetry!

Congratulations to our dear Neil!

Neil Aitken is the author of The Lost Country of Sight, winner of the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, and founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review. He is also an experienced translator of Chinese poetry with over 150 translations in the last two years. With Ming Di, he co-translated The Book of Cranes (Tupelo 2013) by Zang Di and The Book of Time (Tupelo 2013), an anthology of contemporary Chinese poets. He also served as lead translator for Ming Di’sThe River Merchant’s Wife (Marick 2012). His poems have appeared in Barn Owl Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Drunken Boat, Ninth Letter, Poetry Southeast, Sou’wester, The Southern Review, and many other fine journals. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (poetry & fiction) from UC Riverside and is completing a Ph.D. in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. An experienced instructor, he has taught creative writing workshop classes at UC Riverside and led community poetry workshops for Beyond Baroque, Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, and EngAGE Senior Artists Communities. He has also provided support and coaching for new literary journals and first book poets.

Click here to listen to his poetry! http://rhinopoetry.org/2013/01/05/babbage-departing-turin-by-coach-1840-neil-aitken/

Rachelle Cruz has three poems, up at Backbone Poetry Journal

Congrats, dear Rachelle!

Rachelle Cruz is from Hayward, California. She is the author of the chapbook, Self-Portrait as Rumor and Blood (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Bone Bouquet, PANK Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, Splinter Generation, KCET's Departures Series, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, among others. She hosts The Blood-Jet Writing Hour on Blog Talk Radio. She is an Emerging Voices Fellow, a Kundiman Fellow and a VONA writer living and writing in Southern California. 

Read her poems here: http://www.backbonepress.org/issueDec2012Rachel%20Cruz.html